Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
“Project Hail Mary” continues to delight Amazon MGM in the United States with a fantastic second week at the box office. Ryan Gosling’s film dropped just 32% in its second weekend, leading the box office with a more than respectable $54.5 million. With these figures, it has dropped less than recent releases like ‘Oppenheimer,’ which fell 43% in its second week. Thus, the film has grossed $164.3 million in the United States and is on track to soon—based on U.S. box office alone—exceed its $248 million budget. To these figures must be added international earnings, which already total $136.2 million following the film’s release in new markets such as Spain, where the film performed acceptably but couldn’t compete with Torrente.
In total, 10 days after its release, ‘Project Hail Mary’ has grossed $300.8 million worldwide. It thus becomes MGM’s best opening since Amazon bought the studio, the best opening so far this year, and the second-best opening of the decade for an original film (not counting sequels), trailing only ‘Oppenheimer.’ The film is also now Ryan Gosling’s highest-grossing film as a lead actor.
The question is how the film will continue to perform now that another major release of the year is arriving: Super Mario Galaxy: The Movie, the sequel to the hit first collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination. It’s also hitting theaters during Holy Week, a holiday in many regions. Distributors are thus hoping for a strong start to 2026, which in the United States is already 23% ahead of the box office revenue recorded at this time in 2025.
‘They’re Going to Kill You’ Gets Off to a Deadly Start
The only major release this week in the U.S. was the horror film ‘They Will Kill You,’ which ended up in third place with a dismal $5 million at the box office despite opening on 2,778 screens. The Warner Bros. film, starring Zazie Beetz, has failed to replicate the success of ‘Weapons’ or ‘The Sinners.’ What’s more, despite having a budget of just $20 million, it reportedly hasn’t even reached $9 million when including international territories, which makes recouping costs quite difficult.
One film that has been a hit is ‘Hoppers.’ The first Pixar original film in years to perform this well held onto the number-two spot over the weekend, adding another $12.2 million in the United States and reaching $297 million worldwide—making it the second-best opening for a Hollywood film, trailing only the $300.8 million earned by ‘Project Hail Mary.’ Excellent figures that, however, pale in comparison to the film leading the 2026 rankings, the Chinese film ‘Pegasus 3,’ which has amassed a whopping $609 million in box office receipts, almost entirely within the Chinese market. What’s more, of the 10 highest-grossing films so far in 2026, four are Chinese titles.
A lackluster box office at the lower end
Beyond the big releases, the rest of the U.S. box office for the weekend is quite poor. Fourth place goes to the Indian film ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge,’ which dropped 52% in its second week. The weekend also featured two re-releases: Universal re-released ‘The Mummy Returns’ to mark its 25th anniversary, grossing about $600,000 across 1,430 screens. Sony, for its part, celebrated the 40th anniversary of ‘Stand by Me’ with a re-release in 624 theaters, which grossed $450,000.
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